One of the fundamental human needs is work. To have a decent job is not just a need but also a right. Although the government should not be the one providing direct jobs, except for basic public administration, it has the responsibility to create the right environment for work opportunities to expand, and the diversity of jobs in the market to be as varied as possible.

Today demands have shifted. If a couple of decades ago, we would have been happy to have a job, any job, today we ask for good jobs, satisfying jobs, and jobs that fit in with our agendas, career and family requirements.

Markets keep on evolving, demands and spending patterns keep on shifting, both locally and also in our export markets. Consequently we have to be at the forefront to provide the goods and services that the markets need. We cannot stick to the old traditional jobs that we had 20 years ago, and this is what differentiates the Nationalist administration from the Labour and GWU opposition.

While the Nationalist government keeps on shifting its strategy to adapt to the new market realities, the old mentality prevails within the GWU and their political partners within the Labour party who keep insisting that the role of the government is to bring more factories to Malta, and to keep the old ones here even if across the world factories are migrating en masse to China, which is becoming the sole manufacturer of the world. Not even the former Communist countries with lower labour costs are able to attract certain manufacturing jobs, even if they are transitioning economies.

Although we always need to look forward, it is worthwhile to remember that the most that people were expected to aspire under the past Labour / socialist administrations was to get a job at Izra u rabbi (parastatal corps) or fil-fabbrika tal-Kappar (capers’ factory) or if you attend a labour activity you had the chance to win a job in a raffle. Yes... one of the first prizes in a Socialist activity was “a job”.

Furthermore the Labour ministers expected you to be grateful to them and not to your abilities if you had a job. Most of the times you had to beg a minister or the canvasser of a minister for a job which could result in the appointment of a watchmen, or accepting pseudo jobs at the numerous civil and military corps that were created at the times. All these jobs were paid out of the public coffers.

The factories which existed at the time were mostly textile manufacturers with minimal value added for the Maltese economy, or managed to survive only because local wages were frozen. Other manufacturers operated in a surreal and artificial market, since they had no competition. Their buddies inside the Labour government made sure that no competition was allowed so that the privileged manufacturers (remember “Chokita” or “Deserta” anyone?) can survive.

Jobs in the service industry, telecommunications industry, financial sector, shipping, internet, and other professional jobs were unheard of. Labour always thought low of local workers. They never ever believed in the ability of the Maltese people. But they had a lot of belief in their own ministers, since they were the ones dishing out the minimal jobs available. Typical of labour, they always believed that the government should be in control in all aspects of life, including one’s own job.

Do I need to remind you that you had to sign a paper that you will not give redundancies to any worker if you intended to import a computer?

What a change since then!

During the last 20 years, the entire work environment, legal framework, supply of human resources, and image has been transformed. While the Labour opposed every single step taken by the Nationalist administrations in transforming and modernising our country and its economy, both the Labour and their partners, the GWU, always insisted that the government should protect the non-productive sectors such as the shipbuilding, drydocks, and other obsolete jobs operating in protected sectors. I still remember clearly Labour’s prediction of doom and gloom when the Nationalist government had decided to liberalise the telecommunications sector. Obviously they feared that Telemalta would not survive. One needs to remember that during the 1980s Telemalta was one of the major and favourite employer for the Labour ministers. It kept absorbing staff employed by the various Labour ministers. Not only it survived, but all the competition created a considerable amount of productive jobs in this sector. That is just one example.

Since human resources are the main asset of this country, the PN governments invested heavily in education to provide the necessary resources by the ever changing market requirements. After all no major investor would have come to Malta if the necessary human resources were not available.

The buck does not stop here. More needs to be done. Today we are aiming to become more oriented to R&D. A lot of research and development is being carried “secretly” in our factories. Obviously these researches and developments are kept “secret” due to competition in the sector. But we all should be aware that our businessmen and entrepreneurs, together with all of us who use our brains, create and develop new methods and things all the time. What we need is to be more aware of what is going on around us on this island.

I must also point out that although our unemployment is low by European standards, and considering that we are in the middle of a global crisis, participation level is still low in Malta, especially amongst married women. Culture plays a part as well. The PN administration who was constantly successful in creating the right environment for jobs to thrive, will now need to focus on the next challenges. Competition is fierce and the economic environment is tough.

The first hurdle is to overcome the global economic crisis. The government intervened to assist sectors in need, which had the biggest impact on employment. While the Labour party claim that unemployment is rising, at the same time they are trying to depict a picture of gloom and doom because of the deficit, without even realising the contradiction in their own statement. The focus of this government is work. If a stimulus is required to preserve jobs, so be it. It is a temporary measure required in the short term.

Secondly, for the long term, the government will need to create new incentives in order to attract more people to the workforce. Traditional jobs are disappearing, and the trends are favouring more flexible and freelance work. We have to keep these trends in mind when planning new incentives. In most foreign countries more people are abandoning the traditional 9 to 5 job, more people are telecommuting. A lot of working mothers work from home, choosing their own hours. These work practices are environmentally friendly as well, with less pressures on traffic, office space and energy requirements.

With the reality of the EU, jobs might not be restricted to services offered in Malta. Maltese workers can be working for foreign employers from their own homes in Malta, both as freelancers or as regular employees.

The government’s right is to create the right environment, both legally and also economically. On the education level, the government needs to continue planning in a way so that we make sure that future needs are supplied. The government has been successful so far in this regard. The rest is our own hands. We need to look out for the opportunities and take the initiative to grasp the best of what’s out there.

We have a vision for this country. We want Malta to be the best in our region and the target is 2015. Together we can make it.

David Agius is

the government whip